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 Schafer, Cory C.
Cory C. Schafer died on Christmas day in a hospital in Seattle as a result of a year-long illness that could not be diagnosed. She was born in New Jersey in 1932 but spent her years until high school in Indiana. In 1936 her sister, Carol, was born and then, just in time for high school, the family moved to Haddonfield, New Jersey, where she met and began dating Bill Schafer, the boy she would later marry. Incidentally, she and her husband were born in the same hospital two months apart. In high school she was popular as a Cheer Leader and after graduating in 1950 she attended Delaware University for a year but decided she wanted to be a nurse and entered nursing school in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. She earned her nursing degree in June of 1957 and promptly married Bill Schafer in August. Not having money or jobs, they decided that their honeymoon would be driving Bill's 1936 Chevy coupe to Cleveland, Ohio, where Bill entered Western Reserve University Law School. Cory promptly got a job as an operating-room nurse at the Huron Road Hospital and then as a secretary for a small plumbing supply company to put Bill through law school. Then as Bill was about to graduate, daughter, Sheryl, was born and a few months after that they moved to Arlington, Virginia, where Bill had accepted a job with the U.S. Department of Justice. In 1959 James was born. After two years in Washington, the Department offered Bill a job as a trial attorney in Ketchikan, Alaska. He said yes immediately and to Cory's surprise they were off to Alaska in a few weeks. Cory had never heard of Ketchikan, had no idea where it was, except somewhere in Alaska, and had no idea what she would have to wear up there. The Department told her not to worry, but it rained a lot. They showed Bill a map of the area and told him that when they arrived in Metlakatla they would take a taxi to Ketchikan. That seemed odd because Metlakatla was on one island, Ketchikan on another. When Cory saw that the taxi was a small seaplane she panicked because she was carrying two babies. Oh, and Bill got sick on the flight. It took them nine hours to get to Ketchikan. For the first few nights they stayed in the Pioneer Hotel on the waterfront, second floor (no elevator), and had to have the baby's bottle warmed at the bar on the first floor. Later that first night they were received by the wife of the U.S. attorney - in her bare feet. They found an apartment that was confining but comfortable enough on the second floor of a house on the side of a mountain. The courthouse and the only shopping were at the foot of the mountain - 117 wooden steps away. They quickly found out that the Department was wrong about the rain in Ketchikan, it didn't rain a lot, it rained all the time. After Alaska they moved to Tucson. Bill passed the bar exam and soon became the Pima County Attorney. In 1970 Bill took a job at the Arizona Attorney General's office in Phoenix and in 1989 was appointed a superior court judge. Cory was a petite woman and always busy, clever, very well organized, full of lists for everything, liked margaritas and red wine, hats and antiques, the English Cotswalds, won cups at flower shows for her arrangements, always did things up royally for birthdays and holidays like there would never be another, read a lot, upholstered many of the chairs in their home and in her daughter's home, took painting classes, worked with stained glass, went ballooning, took Spanish and western dance lessons, learned to belly dance, did yoga for years, and attended Sunday services at the Beatitudes church. She also had a striking and cunning sense of humor, like when they were in Berlin and found a library that had one of Bill's books. Her comment was, "Yeah, but did anybody take it out?" During the 41 years she lived in Phoenix and Paradise Valley, she moved twice, had both kids graduate from Sunnyslope High School, sent Sheryl off to college at the U. of A., put James to work, worked as a Public Health Nurse for seven years, saved Bill's life when he had a heart attack, travelled all over with him while he taught and judged, and kept him extremely happy - and thankful that he asked the guy next to him in study hall the first year in high school who the pretty blonde was walking up the aisle. They were together for 65 years after that. Cory is survived by her husband, Bill, her daughter, Sheryl, son-in-law, Peter, and two granddaughters, Kate and Kelly. Her son, James, died in 1990. She asked that there not be a funeral service and that instead of flowers, donations be sent to
or to her favorite, the Salvation Army.
Published in The Arizona Republic on January 10, 2012
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